Point Blank
by Tawnykit
Summary: It's been five years since they were captured by Hojo. Five years since the Nibelhiem mission. Five years... They've had enough of it. They're getting out of that basement and away from insane Hojo and his crazy experiments. Zack has a plan...
1. Memories

Disclaimer: I don't own _Final Fantasy VII_. I wish I did, but as they say, if wishes were fishes we could end world hunger. Probably. With all the greed in this world, it's possible (probable?) that various big important people would keep it all for themselves...

A/N: If you haven't seen the hidden cutscene after you rescue Cloud from Mideel and fix all his memories, than this will make no sense to you, though you may still find it interesting. If you haven't seen the hidden cutscene, than what the hell are you waiting for? Go to the basement of Shinra mansion and see it now! And, if you haven't played the game past the Lifestream Sequence, this will not only make no sense to you, but it will spoil an incredibly important part of the game. You've been warned.

* * *

Pain. 

That was all Zack was aware of. That, and the lightheadedness that always came with Mako infusions.

How long had they been there, floating in a green liquid that zapped their strength like a parasite? Hojo's crazy experiments…

Zack shook his head, trying to recall. It had been… five years. Five years since the Nibelheim mission, since Sephiroth had gone mad and the village had been burned to the ground. Five years since they had been caught by Hojo and his men. Since their nightmare had started.

It was all coming back now. He had been… inside the old Shinra mansion. That's right. Sephiroth had ordered him to go away and leave him to his studies. Zack had agreed and had retreated to a room not far from the secret staircase that led to the old library where Sephiroth was researching his past.

Days had passed, and Zack had started to get worried. Sephiroth hadn't sent word to him or anyone else about what was going on or if he'd found anything important; he hadn't come up to eat or get water, and the light in the hidden basement never went out. He had decided to go and check on him.

Zack wondered now why he had been so worried. The Great Sephiroth had never needed anyone. He had never met a foe he couldn't defeat, had never asked for help, and never showed his feelings to anyone. Perhaps it had been the strange light in Sephiroth's usually emotionless eyes as he had ordered Zack to leave the library. The light of madness…

Zack had descended the spiral staircase silently, hand on his sword, filled with apprehension. He had told himself that he was just worried about the few monsters that lay scattered about the old mansion, hiding in the shadows, but in his heart, he had known the truth. The Sephiroth he had been about to encounter would not be the same Sephiroth that he had worshiped for so long, the hero that he had followed loyally and unquestionably during the first part of the mission. Zack had known, even then, that he had not imagined the madness he had seen in his former war-buddy, and he was not sure what to expect.

He had paused at the end of the tunnel, collecting himself, and then had opened the door.

The first room of the basement library had been deserted. Zack had glanced around at the piles of books stacked on the floor, evidence of Sephiroth's desperate search, then had headed past the rows of bookcases to the back, the only other place where Sephiroth could be.

Shinra's top general had been hunched over in a chair, eyes scanning a thick book lying on the desk in front of him. He had looked up slowly as Zack entered. Zack remembered being surprised – and a little frightened – by the look on his face. It was a combination of hatred and utter insanity.

Sephiroth had spoken then, about many things Zack still did not fully understand. He mentioned an ancient civilization, which he had called the Cetra. About how there had been a wound in the Planet, and the Cetra had been sacrificed to heal it. How Zack's ancestors had hidden themselves instead of helping... many other things. Finally, after calling Zack a traitor, he had announced that he was going to see his mother, and had stormed out of the library.

Zack had followed in a confused daze. What had he found that had upset him so? To drive him completely and utterly insane, to fill him with such a burning desire to see his mother?

Zack remembered pausing at the top of the secret staircase. His nose had twitched at the acrid sent that had reached his nostrils. _What the...?_ he had thought to himself. _Is that… smoke?_

It _had_ been smoke, he recalled now with a painful heart. In Sephiroth's madness, in his hatred at the people who had run instead of fighting for the wounded Planet, who had let the Cetra die, he had set fire to the peaceful town of Nibelheim, which lay spread out between him and Mount Nibel, the mountain where he had been sure he would find his mother.

Zack had stared in horror, even more confused now. He hadn't understood, at first. Hadn't _wanted_ to understand. He hadn't wanted to believe that the Great Sephiroth, whom he had been in awe of since he was a small boy, had done something like this.

Then he had seen movement in the flames. _Someone's still alive!_ His hopes had soared. Perhaps others had lived, as well. Perhaps they could explain what was going on. He had trotted forward a few steps, then froze, his heart sinking. Sephiroth had stood there. Several townspeople had stood in front of him, screaming in rage and pain at the destruction of their home.

_Oh no…_

Zack had watched as Sephiroth's enormous sword flashed, once, twice, thrice, flickering in the firelight. The villagers hadn't stood a chance. Sephiroth had turned, not even watching his victims fall, and had stalked off into the flames in the direction of Mount Nibel.

Zack had started to follow him, determined to stop him from hurting anyone else, when he had seen another figure moving in the flames. He had tensed his muscles, wary after what he had just witnessed, then had relaxed. He needn't worry about Zangan.

Zack had been relieved to see that the old martial arts instructor was still in the land of the living. He didn't know him very well, but he had taken an instant liking to the man when they had met in the Nibelheim inn.

He had wanted to question the man as to what had happened, but he never had the chance. Zangan had glanced up from the injured man he had been checking and, upon seeing Zack, called out, "Hey, it's you! You're still sane, right?"

Zack had nodded, his brain still numbed by all that had happened.

"Then come over here and help me! I'll check this house. You check that one over there!"

Without another word, the old martial artist had leaped into the roaring inferno that had once been a family's home.

Zack had taken one look inside the house he had been instructed to search and had known it would be futile. No one could survive the deathtrap in there.

"Terrible… Sephiroth… This is too terrible…"

Sephiroth. The only one who could stand a chance against a SOLDIER was another SOLDIER. After taking one last, sorrowful look at the burning remains of Nibelheim, Zack had turned and sprinted after him.

* * *

Zack had doubled over, dropping to one knee as he reached the Mako Reactor. Even a First Class SOLDIER such as himself felt taxed after running through miles of mountain trails without a break. He had wondered, briefly, if it had been wise to tire himself so. He was going to need all of his strength to fight Sephiroth, after all. Then again, if he had been too late… No, hurrying had been best. 

Feeling rejuvenated by his short rest, he had jogged inside of the dark building in front of him.

The stench of Mako energy had slammed into him as he had entered. G_eez, I hate these places..._ he had thought with a grimace. Looking to his right, he had seen the heavy chain that led down to the lower levels. Bracing himself, he had trotted over and climbed down.

A sound had startled him as he had reached the bottom. It had sounded like someone crying. Peering through the hazy, Mako-clouded air, Zack had seen a girl about his own age, if not a little younger, bent over a still figure.

"Papa…" the girl sobbed. Looking closer, Zack had realized that she was the same girl who had guided Sephiroth and himself to the Mako Reactor just a few days ago, before Sephiroth had gone mad. Tifa… Her name was Tifa.

He had also seen that the figure she was crying over was her father, Sephiroth's sword lying bloody next to him.

Tifa had also seen the sword, and had come to the same conclusion that Zack had. "Sephiroth? Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he? Sephiroth... SOLDIER... Mako Reactors... Shinra... Everything! I hate them all!" With a scream of rage, she had grabbed the sword and ran into the next room. Zack had raced after her.

He had watched her confront Sephiroth, powerless to stop as the insane man wrenched the sword away from her and cut her down. He had drawn his own sword, running after Sephiroth has he disappeared into the room at the top of the stairs. He hadraced after his former hero, anger consuming his better judgement, and had subsequently been knocked back down the stairs, landing on one of the Mako pods, a long gash down his chest. Too weak to sit up, he had lain there panting, feeling his lifeblood seep through his torn uniform. He had almost lost hope when another figure had entered the room.

It was one of the men who had been sent to assist Sephiroth and Zack on the mission. Though it was impossible to tell with his mask still on his face, Zack had had a pretty good idea of which guard it was.

His suspicions had been confirmed when the newcomer had run over to Tifa's body, pulling off his helmet as he knelt down next to her. Zack had instantly recognized the spiky blond hair. The guard was a young man about Zack's age. He had been chosen for this mission because Nibelheim was his hometown. Zack had only been able to only imagine how he must have feeling just then. His name, as Zack recalled, was Cloud Strife.

Suddenly Sephiroth's voice had echoed down from the top room, and Cloud had stood up, a fire in his eyes. With the last of his strength, Zack had called out to his last hope.

"Cloud… Kill Sephiroth…" With that, blackness had claimed him.

He still did not know exactly what had happened. He had been told that Sephiroth had died, so Cloud had been successful, but how a common soldier had defeated him, Zack couldn't fathom.

_Cloud_…

Zack turned his head slightly, peering through the green Mako to the glass tube next to his own. Cloud floated within, barely alive. The two of them had been discovered by Professor Hojo, the insane head of Shinra's science department, and had been taken away from the reactor. Zack did not know what had happened to Tifa; either she was dead, or she had somehow escaped, for she had not been with them when he had regained consciousness. Hojo had been performing experiments involving Mako energy and Zack-didn't-know-what-else on the two young men ever since.

Zack himself was holding out okay. As a member of SOLDIER's finest troops, he had been exposed to Mako before. Cloud, on the other hand, would die if they didn't find a way to escape soon. But Zack didn't intend to let his friend die.

Zack had a plan.


	2. Escape

Disclaimer: I do not, have not, and never will own Final Fantasy VII or anything else of interest to you. Don't sue me.

A/N: Well! Certainly has been forever since I've updated, hasn't it? My deepest apologies. I was concentrating on my _Yu Gi Oh!_ fic, _Stranger Danger_, but I decided that enough is enough. I hope this chapter makes up for the hiatus!

Ages: Cloud is twenty-one in the game. Thank you, Volian, forinforming me that Zack is two years older than Cloud.Since the Nibelhiem incident (last chapter) occurred approximately five years before the start of the game, that would make Cloud sixteen and Zack eighteen when that occurred. As far as I know, Square never told us when exactly the events of the next few chapters take place. I'm guess that it was only a few months before the start of the game. Therefore, let's say that Cloud is twenty-one, just like he is in the game, and Zack is twenty-three.

Dialogue: You may have noticed that last chapter (and in the beginning of this one) the dialogue consisted entirely of what they said in the game. I felt that would be more realistic. Well, the game doesn't show us everything I want to say for most of the following events; the cut scene is, after all, Cloud's broken, fragmented flashback. So I'm using my imagination with filling in between the lines, and that means it's my own dialogue.

Anyway… Enjoy!

* * *

It was almost time. Zack looked anxiously at the dusty clock hanging on the far wall, trying to see the positions of the hands through the greenish glow of Mako all around him. One of Hojo's assistants would soon be coming in to give the two prisoners a meager lunch, barely enough to survive on. 

He shifted his gaze to rest on the tank next to him. There, floating in a tank identical to Zack's own, was the spiky-haired form of Cloud Strife.

_Soon, Cloud. Just hang on a little longer_..._ We'll be free soon_…

Just as these thoughts had crossed his mind, the door to the basement slid open. In stepped the suited form of the man who had been assigned to deliver today's meal. Zack smiled. _Now_…

The man approached Zack's tank first. Zack's smile grew as he naïvely called out, "Hey! This is your food."

_No, duh, idiot. What else would it be?_ thought Zack with some annoyance. His aggravation soon disappeared as he took note of the man. He appeared nervous, and Zack remembered that he was a new member of the team here. The former SOLDIER's smile turned to a smirk. He had been counting on that fact.

The man reached out to the button that would open Zack's tank, his miniscule training betraying him, just as the captive had known it would. _Fool... Didn't tell you to inject a tranquilizer first, did they?_

As the doors to his tank swung open, Zack lunged forward, his fist colliding with the hapless guard's chin. There was the sickening crunch of breaking bone, and the man fell to the floor. Zack looked at him emotionlessly. He could feel no pity for one of the people who had held him captive for so long.

He took a moment to take in is surroundings. His eyes widened in shock when he realized just exactly where they had been held for the past five years.

It was the library. The same library in which Sephiroth had spent days and nights researching his lost past, in which he had become mad and…

…And… burned the town to the ground. The library was located in the Shinra mansion. The Shinra mansion was located in the town if _Nibelhiem_. Why had it not been destroyed?

Shaking his head, deciding to worry about that once they were free, Zack took a step towards Cloud's tank, staggering slightly as his leg muscles, unused for so long, complained at the task they now had to perform. He leaned against the tank to catch his breath, the green glow from the Mako making his arm seem to glow, as well.

Feeling steady now, Zack opened Cloud's tank. Sickly green Mako spilled to the floor, followed by Cloud's unsteady, blue-uniformed body. He landed on his hands and knees, his head shaking in confusion. His body convulsed, and he collapsed to the ground.

_Cloud!_ Zack's eyes widened, and he started forward to assist the young man. Suddenly, something caught his eyes, and he froze, turning his head to see it better. He felt a smile split his face. It was his sword! The idiot scientists had hung the Buster Sword on the far wall, as if it was some kind of sick trophy. Triumphantly, Zack trotted forward and swung it down from the pegs that held it in place. Its sheathe was leaning against the wall below the pegs. He picked it up and slid sword into sheathe, then slung it across his back. Its familiar weight was comforting to the black-haired man.

He looked about him and grabbed a uniform similar to his own from off the table. Cloud couldn't go around wearing the Shinra uniform that currently adorned his body; it was too easy to notice, too easy to recognize. He slung the uniform over his shoulder and hurried to Cloud's side. Guilt washed over him; he had left the young man convulsing on the ground while he found his _sword_.

He bent over the blond, shaking his shoulder. "Cloud? Hey, are you okay?"

Cloud moaned, twitching, and shook his head. Whether he actually understood the question and was replying that no, he was _not_ okay, or whether he was merely lost in his own world of desperate confusion, Zack didn't know.

"Geez… You're in bad shape, buddy," he murmured. He grabbed Cloud under his arms and began to drag him to the door. The first thing they needed to do was escape; he could figure out how to help his companion when they had reached safety.

Halfway to the door, he stopped. "This isn't working…" he murmured. Cloud was a dead weight, and Zack was out of shape from five years of floating in Mako and being experimented on. "Need to find a different way to move you…"

He set the young man gently down, catching his breath. "Okay… Let's try this, instead." He bent down, wrapping Cloud's arm around his shoulder and heaving him up, trying to support the other boy's weight. He took a few hesitant steps, noted that this new method seemed to be working, and smirked. "Time to get out of this joint."

Their progress was sluggish, for even with his improved Cloud-transport system, Zack was still supporting most of the blond's weight. Slowly, they made their way to the door. With some difficulty, he opened it, stepping into an all too familiar corridor. An eerie purple glow illuminated the area, and Zack wrinkled his nose as the dank smell of musk and bat guano replaced the stench of Mako from the library. He had been in this cave-like hallway before, and he didn't appreciate the memories that the place held. With a scowl, Zack pushed forward.

He moved as quickly and as quietly as possible. He was hoping not to run into anyone who might attempt to stop them. However, as is so often the case in such scenarios, fate decided to dash Zack's hopes. It wasn't long before he heard someone approaching from the other end of the corridor.

"Shit," Zack swore, looking around for someplace to hide. They would never make it back to the library, and there was no where to turn…

There! A door stood not three feet to his right. Zack threw himself at it in relief, his free hand scrambling for the knob…

Only to find it locked.

The person was closer now. In scant seconds, they would be upon them. With no other options, Zack let Cloud slide to the floor and drew his sword. He would fight if he had to.

A man stepped into his view, freezing when he saw Zack standing there. He wore the standard blue uniform of a common Shinra soldier, his rifle slung over one shoulder.

Zack wasn't the kind of man who killed when he didn't have to. Life was too precious to waste; sometimes he wondered why he had become a soldier in the first place. However, he knew how to do what he had to do.

The guard hastily scrambled for his rifle, but Zack was already upon him. He couldn't let him shout, couldn't let him fire his weapon… All would be lost if the soldier made a sound.

The battle was over almost before it had begun. Zack had sliced the man's weapon in half before he had even raised it into firing position. Reversing the sideways motion he had used to accomplish that task, Zack sent his sword up and buried it into the guard's chest. With a strangled gurgling sound, the man – now merely a body – fell to the ground, red blood staining his once-pristine blue uniform purple in a sick imitation of a child's finger-paints.

Calmly, for he had killed many times before and was well past the stage of being stricken by such an act, Zack pulled the Buster Sword from out of the corpse's chest. He wiped it clean of blood on the body's pant leg, sheathed it, and walked back to Cloud.

* * *

Zack stared in wide-eyed amazement at the sight before his eyes. 

They had had no further encounters during their escape. After they had left the corridor and made their difficult way up the spiral staircase and through the secret door, there had been many places in which they could hide if the need arose. No more men lay dead at the black-haired man's hands.

They had come to the front door of the mansion, the final thing between them and their freedom. Zack had pushed it open…

Only to find _this_. The town of Nibelhiem, which had been burnt to ruins with the slaughtered bodies of townsfolk lying in the streets, looked _exactly_ as it had before Sephiroth had committed his sin.

Zack couldn't believe it. He supposed he could understand it being rebuilt; it had been five years, after all. But _this_? Every wall, every building, every_thing_ had been restored in its entirety. Staring into the distance, Zack could even see the same rusted truck at the entrance to the small town that he had passed upon entering so long before.

Had he imagined it? Had the Mako driven him insane? No! He remembered everything with such a clarity that he _knew_ it had been real. But then… how?

"Mm… ah… gurk…" Cloud's mumbled nonsense brought Zack out of his reverie. The other man hadn't said a work since they had left the library; maybe this new sound meant that he was recovering. Though those could hardly be called words…

"Guess you're right, buddy," Zack said, as if he had understood him. "Shouldn't stand around gaping, should I?" He took one more look at the town and began to limp towards the town entrance.

_Free.

* * *

_

A/N: Look, I had an _action sequence _in this! I know the battle was _really_ short, but it's my first time really writing one, so any opinions or pointers would be much appreciated.

So would reviews, by the way... (wink)


	3. The Journey Begins

Disclaimer: (scowl) Dang it. I tried to win the rights to Final Fantasy VII, but... let's just say poker never was my game.

A/N: Sorry about the long wait (again). I can't even claim Writer's Block as an excuse this time; it was laziness. I needed to plot out the route that they took from Nibelhiem to the estimated place where Zack was killed, and it was a pain to boot upthe gaming computer for that. Please accept my apologies.

On a cheerier note, I just got my hands on a copy of _Last Order_...

..._Wow_. I'm _definitely_ going to be including some of the things that happened in there. The idea of Zack on a motorcycle is the coolest thing I've heard all day. (Fact: I'm a sucker for motorcycles.)

Anyway, without further ado, allow me to present the third chapter of _Point Blank_.

* * *

Zack leaned back against the wall, panting slightly. It had been hard work, getting this far. Cloud was damn _heavy_ for someone who'd spent five years without proper nutrition. Or perhaps Zack himself had gotten weak. 

He'd been lucky enough to find this cave in the mountains near Nibelhiem. It was close enough to the town that he'd had the energy to get them there, but far away enough that he felt it a reasonably safe place to rest. It offered decent shelter from the elements, and, in the likely event of pursuit, its high elevation gave the former SOLDIER a perfect lookout.

The black-haired young man rested his head on his hand, his elbow braced against his knee, and tried to figure out what in the name of President Shinra they were going to do.

He was sure that they would be followed. Not only would Hojo want his toys back, but Zack had been forced to kill one of their soldiers, and he wouldn't have bet a lot of money on the health of the lab technician who he had injured when escaping from the tank, either. That was enough to warrant an arrest, or at least it had been the last time Zack had checked up on the local law enforcement system, which, admittedly, had been five years ago.

There was also the town itself to consider. If it had been rebuilt – and Zack was _sure_ that that was the only explanation – than Shinra had done it to cover up what Sephiroth had done. They certainly wouldn't want it to be known that the man who had once been their biggest hero had been behind such a slaughter. That being the case, Zack and Cloud knew too much information, and would be considered a danger to the organization.

Whichever way he looked at it, it spelled only one thing: F-U-G-I-T-I-V-E-S. That was all he and Cloud were now. They would have to go into hiding, take on new identities, forge new lives. That was assuming, of course, that Cloud would be able to recover from the Mako poisoning.

Zack ran a hand through his hair. Ironically, the best place to hide from Shinra was probably right under their noses. That made their best option one that Zack knew well, for he had dwelled in the booming metropolis for several years during his SOLDIER training. It would be easy to hide there, to become one of many faceless individuals in the downtrodden slums. Hopefully, there would be someone there with the medical skills to help Cloud, as well.

The city had many nicknames. The City on the Plate... the Floating Pizza... "that polluted scum hole..." Whatever you called it, one thing was undeniable. Midgar was a very good place to go if you didn't want to be found.

Zack set his jaw. They would stay here for a few days so that he could recover his strength, then follow the Nibel Mountain range southeast as far as possible. He wanted to stay off the plains until it was absolutely necessary to cross them, as they would be easy targets for any pursuit with nothing to take cover behind.

It would be a hard journey, made all the harder in his weakened state and with Cloud's dead weight to carry. There were mountains to climb, rivers to ford, an entire ocean to cross... Midgar was a continent and a half away, with every kind of terrain imaginable in between where they were now and where they wanted to go.

What he wouldn't give for a chocobo.

"This is gonna be tough, Cloud," he remarked out loud, turning to grimace at his silent companion. The blond youth looked slightly green; he had already been sick once on the way here. Zack hoped he would be all right.

He sat down next to his friend, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You okay, buddy?"

No answer.

Zack sighed, leaning back. "Man... They really messed you up, didn't they? What did they _do_ to us, Cloud?"

Silence.

Zack bit his lip. He knew Cloud wasn't going to all of a sudden start responding to him. He was too sick for that. He'd read something once, though, about how talking to people who were ill could make them recover faster. He didn't know if there was any fact behind that... but could it hurt to try?

"So, I've decided we're going to head to Midgar, Cloud. How's that sound to you?"

"Do you think there'll be a doctor there who can help you, Cloud?"

"Say, Cloud, I don't s'pose you know a place where we can stay when we get there, eh? Or even somewhere along the way would be cool. I don't fancy camping out without a tent 'n' all."

"I'm starving Cloud, how 'bout you? You know of a town nearby where we can get some chow?"

"Wonder what my ol' mum and dad are doing right now. Heh, I haven't written to them in... years. Woops."

"Do you think we're the only ones who survived?"

"Say, about that girl, what's 'er name, Tifa... You liked her, right? Y'think she made it?"

"I wonder if Sephiroth really _is_ dead... Dunno how you pulled it off, Cloud. Good job."

He kept talking long into the night, chattering aimlessly about whatever he could think of until his eyes felt as if someone had attached lead weights to them. Slowly, Zack drifted off to sleep, for a few hours able to forget about their troubles.

* * *

He awoke to the unpleasant sound of someone being violently sick. Sitting bolt upright, he glanced around, wincing as the resulting turn of his head aggravated his neck, stiff from sleeping sitting up against the stone wall of the cave. 

Cloud was on his hands and knees a few feet away, his trembling form struggling to empty his stomach's contents. Zack hastily crawled over next to him, supporting him as green-tinted bile dribbled onto the floor. He wrinkled his nose; it looked – and smelled – strongly of Mako.

When Cloud had stopped retching, Zack helped him sit back. Cloud showed no sign of even knowing he was there; he returned to staring into space, his head lolling on his neck.

Zack forced a shrug, trying not to feel too worried. "Guess that means you're not going to be wanting breakfast, eh Cloud?" His stomach rumbled, and he grinned. "Well, I do. You gonna be okay here if I go catch something to eat?"

Zack stood. "I'll be right back, Cloud. You holler if you need anything, 'kay?" Grabbing his Buster Sword from where it leaned against the far wall, he slung it over his shoulder and strode out of the cave.

A half hour of foraging didn't turn up much. Zack grimaced down at what he had managed to scrounge, a grey, tasteless fungus that he remembered as being edible and a handful of wild roots. Really, he was lucky to have found that much. The Nibel Mountains were devoid of most plantlife, and most of the creatures were monsters, too strong for him to take on in his current condition.

Zack sighed. "Y'know, I never thought I'd ever miss field rations," he muttered to himself, before pocketing his "breakfast" to eat back at the cave.

He felt like a hunted animal as he slunk back to their temporary home, slinking from rock to rock with a white knuckled grip on his sword. Even a small skirmish could be lethal to him right now, especially if Shinra had dispatched soldiers after them already. Even before he'd undergone SOLDIER training, a half hour of scrambling over rocks wouldn't have drained his energy as this had. He hoped the effects were short-term; he would need all his strength to survive the trip to Midgar.

Zack had almost made it back to the cave when a blue blur cut right in front of him, making him fall over backward to avoid getting hit. With a few muffled curses, the ex-SOLDIER sprung to his feet, drawing his sword as he looked around for his attacker.

When no further assault came, the black-haired young man relaxed slightly, lowering the massive sword and loosening his stance. He was still searching for the whatever-it-was when a loud screech sounded from somewhere above him.

Glancing up, Zack saw a dark shape circling in the sky above. It was a Zuu, a large, temperamental, bird-like monster that dwelled on Mount Nibel and the surrounding area. Watching it circle once more and then descend to a rocky crag about fifty feet above his head, a faint idea tapped Zack on the shoulder. Grinning, he looked around for a way to make the Zuu leave its nest for a few minutes.

He was going to have eggs for breakfast.

* * *

It hadn't been easy. With no materia, he'd had to be extremely creative to find a distraction big enough to force the Zuu away from its nest. He had scaled the cliffs, careful to keep out of the creature's sight as he climbed to a point above it where he could see but not be seen. In the end, he'd had to create a small rockslide and pray that the noise wouldn't attract something unfriendly. The mini avalanche had slid down right next to the nest, causing the Zuu to leap shrieking into the air. Zack had then half run, half fell down to the nest, snatching one enormous egg from the messy pile of branches and hightailing it out of there. 

He was whistling as he swaggered back to the cave, immensely pleased with himself. Cloud was sitting exactly has he had left him, the ragged rise and fall of his chest the only sign that he was a living human being instead of a corpse. Zack sat down next to him, setting his sword on the ground.

"Look at that, Cloud," he grinned, showing the other man his prize. "Wasn't easy to get. You want some?"

A gurgled moan.

Zack blinked. Was that a response, or just a coincidence?

"...Yeah, I guess you're right. You probably can't keep it down, eh? Y'know, you're gonna need to eat something eventually. Need to get your strength back." Zack grabbed his sword, puncturing the eggshell on its tip. A shame he couldn't cook it, but he didn't want a fire to catch the attention of anyone – or anything – they didn't want to meet... in other words, everyone and everything.

He sucked absently on the yellow liquid that seeped from the pale blue shell, thinking hard. "I guess..." he started, swallowing a mouthful of egg, "that we should wait a little while to see if you can get whatever's making you throw up out of your system." Nodding, he continued, "So you can miss this one meal, Cloud, but then you need to eat. We'll see how you handle lunch, okay?"

Zack waited anxiously, hoping for even another groan, but Cloud continued to gaze, unmoving, at the opposite wall. Sighing, Zack stood.

"We'll stay here for a few more days, Cloud. Then we'll go to Midgar. Okay?"

To the silence that answered him, Zack gave an angry shout and slammed his fist into the wall. Hojo... Shinra... it was all Shinra's fault. _Everything_ was all Shinra's fault! With a despairing moan, the ex-SOLDIER turned renegade sank down to the floor and put his head in his hands, allowing himself to weep for all the evil that Shinra had done to the world.

* * *

Zack smiled into the sunlight that caressed his face. His strength had been returning rapidly ever since their escape, and though it would be awhile before his ability had come back in full, he felt sure that he would be able to handle a day of traveling. 

He turned to look at Cloud. While Zack might be springing back like a chocobo on sylkis greens, Cloud's condition had remained the same. Silence broken only by a few garbled sounds, immobility save for the occasional twitch, the blond hadn't shown that he even knew he was free from the basement. At least he had stopped vomiting. That had to be something.

Zack forced his voice to be cheerful as he addressed his companion. "Today's the day, Cloud. We leave for Midgar today. You excited?"

"..."

"I am. I can't wait to get to get outta this place. I mean, 's nice cave for a visit, but I wouldn't want to live here, would you?"

"..."

"Oh, here!" Zack had almost forgotten the uniform that he had grabbed for the other man. There hadn't been a need to worry about such things until now, but they couldn't go around looking like Shinra grunts after this. "Put on this." Zack bent down and began to help his comrade into the uniform. "It smells a little, though. Don't complain," he continued to prattle on.

Stepping back to admire his handiwork, he nodded in satisfaction. "You look pretty good in with that. "Well..." He knelt down in front of the blond and pulled him onto his back. Now that he was stronger this was the best way to carry the other man. "Time to get going, pal."

Unable to stop a grin from spreading on his face at the excitement of being on the move, Zack whistled as common Shinra marching tune as he set out.

Their future lay in front of them, and he couldn't wait to face it.


End file.
